Hewlett-Packard to sue former Autonomy CFO

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

Aug 4 (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co said it would sue former Autonomy Chief Financial Officer Sushovan Hussain after he sought to block HP’s settlement of three shareholder lawsuits over its troubled purchase of the British software company.

In the settlement, reached on June 30, shareholders had agreed to end efforts to force current and former HP officials, including Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, to pay damages to the Palo Alto, California-based company over its Autonomy purchase.

Instead, the shareholders agreed to help HP pursue claims against former Autonomy officials such as Hussain and former CEO Michael Lynch, who have denied wrongdoing.

“The notion that (Hussain) should be permitted to intervene and challenge the substance of a settlement designed to protect the interests of the company he defrauded is ludicrous,” HP said in a court filing on Monday.

Last month, Hussain said in a court filing that the “collusive and unfair” settlement, if approved by a federal judge, would let HP “forever bury from disclosure the real reason for its 2012 write-down of Autonomy: HP’s own destruction of Autonomy’s success after the acquisition.”

HP, which bought Autonomy for in 2011 for $11.1 billion only to write down its value by $8.8 billion a year later, has accused Autonomy officials of accounting fraud.

The case is In re: Hewlett-Packard Co Shareholder Derivative Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 12-06003. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)